ASK-IT: a large project in its early steps

ASK-IT (Ambient Intelligence System of Agents for Knowledge-based and Integrated Services for Mobility Impaired users) Integrated Project (IST-2003-511298) aims to establish Ambient Intelligence (Ami) in semantic web enabled services, to support and promote the mobility of the Mobility Impaired (MI) people, enabling the provision of personalised, self-configurable, intuitive and context-related applications and services and facilitating knowledge and content organisation and processing. ASK-IT will during a 4 years period develop an environment that will advance mobile devices as personal guides in leisure, sport, education, work, socialisation and tourism and will allow effortless movement of the Elderly and Disabled people across Europe. Emphasis is on seamless service provision, independent of the media, user location (i.e. indoors, outdoors, in a city, during a trip, etc.), user type and residual abilities. The ASK-IT consortium constitutes a balanced mixture of 42 participating partners from 13 European countries with various research background: widely known industrial partners and mobile terminal providers (e.g. SIEMENS, NOKIA, Microsoft, ALCATEL, Vodafone, etc.), research Institutes (e.g. CERTH/ITI), universities, software companies, telecommunications companies and elderly and disabled organisations.
The integrated ASK-IT service and system will be tested in 7 interconnected sites Europe wide, to prove that full travel accessibility for Ml users can be achieved in a reliable and viable way.

e-ISOTIS within ASK-IT
e-ISOTIS (Information Society Open To ImpairmentS) is a non-profit making organisation founded in December 2002, representing People with Disabilities, their spouses as well as members of the ICT (Information Communication Technology) community, worldwide. Currently, its associated members represent 350.000 people with impairments, located in European countries.

e-ISOTIS’ scope is to ensure that disabled and order persons themselves and their families are fully involved in the preparations and activities in line with the slogan "nothing about disabled people without disabled people." By supporting People with Disabilities and older persons, e-ISOTIS aims at assisting its members in overcoming the existing barriers and experiencing an Information Society that opens up new opportunities for development, prosperity and quality of life. In this respect, e-ISOTIS as a MI User representative crosses swords for the dynamic presence of people with impairments in European projects that are related to their needs and their lives.

As Dissemination Leader of the ASK-IT project, e-ISOTIS guarantees that all dissemination material is according to W3C/WAI and other accessibility guidelines and supervises the development of the dissemination material for specific user groups (i.e. leaflets for blind, with Braille). Moreover, e-ISOTIS is responsible for the preparation and production of the ASK-IT leaflets, posters and 6-monthly newsletters. e-ISOTIS is also following up the maintenance of the ASK-IT website (www.ask-it.org) and the organisation of project events.
e-ISOTIS is also involved in the assessment of end-user requirements, covering the needs of people with following impairments:
- Lower and upper limb impairment
- Wheelchair users
- Upper body impairment
- Physiological impairment
- Psychological impairment
- Cognitive impairment
- Vision impairment
- Hearing impairment
- Communication producing and receiving difficulties.

Finally, e-ISOTIS is also member of the ASK-IT Steering Committee.